This document aims to share capabilities and skills across the UK’s academic hydrogen and fuel cell research landscape.

Nearly 70 UK-based academics have contributed to this document. We hope that academics, industry and government, both in the UK and further afield, find this document useful and that it stimulates further collaboration.

In line with the ethos of H2FC SUPERGEN, we aim for the document to be as inclusive as possible, so if you are a UK-based academic working in the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell field and would like to be included, please contact Dr Zeynep Kurban at h2fc@imperial.ac.uk.

Using Hydrogen as an energy carrier has the potential to play a significant role in tackling climate change and poor air quality. This new policy briefing from The Royal Society looks at the existing and emerging technologies used in the production of hydrogen and explores the barriers and opportunities. Technologies such as electrolysis, which separates hydrogen from water using electricity, show exciting potential to produce low-carbon hydrogen at scale and at low cost in the near to mid-term. Can the barriers and costs be driven down to make this a reality?

The paper can be downloaded from the tab below or accessed from The Royal Society Page here!

The fuel cell sector continues to grow. About 30% more fuel cell power was shipped in 2017 than 2016, and nearly 10,000 more units. And while nobody is finding it easy, there seem to be glimmers of light ahead.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has published a report, Energy transition: Measurement needs within the hydrogen industry, which highlights and prioritises the current measurement challenges facing the hydrogen industry. The report emphasises the importance of addressing these challenges should hydrogen play a significant role in a transition to a decarbonised energy system.

In this paper we explore the role of hydrogen in the energy transition, including its potential, recent achievements, and challenges to its deployment. We also offer recommendations to ensure that the proper conditions are developed to accelerate the deployment of hydrogen technologies, with the support of policymakers, the private sector, and society.

The H21 Leeds City Gate project is a study with the aim of determining the feasibility, from both a technical and economic viewpoint, of converting the existing natural gas network in Leeds, one of the largest UK cities, to 100% hydrogen. The project has shown that the gas network has the correct capacity for such a conversion and the existing heat demand for Leeds can be met using technology in use around the world today.

The use of gases such as hydrogen and biogas is technically feasible today. Much of the existing gas infrastructure can be used, thereby limiting the inconvenience of change for gas customers and society overall. The same fuel can supply both heat and transport. But conversion at scale will be logistically challenging, although it was carried out in the 1960s and 1970s.

Government must set out the role of hydrogen for buildings on the gas grid in the next Parliament. The Government will need to make a set of decisions in the next Parliament and beyond on the best strategy for decarbonising buildings on the gas grid. Specifically, it will have to decide on whether there is a role for hydrogen supplied through existing gas networks (extending the useful life of the gas grid infrastructure) alongside other technologies such as heat pumps.

This second edition of the 4th Energy Wave Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Annual Review takes an analytical lookat the development of both industries during 2014. Since the data has been gathered from primary interviewing of producers andmanufacturers, the 4th Energy Wave Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Annual Review contains the only nonestimated global dataset in the world.

This guide is aimed at Hydrogen Refuelling Station installers and was developed as part of the Innovate UK-supported London Hydrogen Network Expansion project, through which London’s second publicly accessible HRS was installed in early 2015. While this document focuses on the UK, references to guidance for other markets are also provided. This guide aims to provide recommendations for successfully installing customer-focused hydrogen refuelling stations.

The present study outlines a pathway for commercialising stationary fuel cells in Europe. It produces acomprehensive account of the current and future market potential for fuel cell distributed energy generation in Europe, benchmarks stationary fuel cell technologies against competing conventional technologies in a variety of use cases and assesses potential business models for commercialisation.

This technical report accompanies the Fifth Carbon Budget – The next step towards a low-carbon economy, the Committee’s published advice on the level of the fifth carbon budget. New infrastructures will be required to support the deployment of low-carbon technologies. As well as CO2 infrastructure, development of heat networks and electric vehicle charging networks will be required, and potentially infrastructure for hydrogen applications.